Best Kid-Friendly Hotels in San Francisco

A team of Oyster reporters spent weeks exploring 59 of the top hotels in San Francisco. We slept in the beds, ate in the restaurants, tested the service, and scoped out the neighborhoods, all with an eye toward selecting the most distinguished properties. Here's a list of our favorite kid-friendly hotels.

For an affordable — yet still comfortable — family option near the high-end shopping in Union Square, you can't do better than the Handlery. This classic San Francisco boutique hotel has one of the few, and one of the best, outdoor pools in the neighborhood. Plus, for about the price of a small standard room elsewhere, families visiting the Handlery can upgrade to a large, 450-square-foot Club-level guest room with a balcony or patio.

The best luxury option in the city for families (and not just because it's only a few yards from some of the world's best ice cream and chocolate in Ghirardelli Square) the Fairmont's huge, residential-style one-, two-, and three-bedroom units truly deliver all the comforts of home -- a full kitchen with Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances; an in-room washer and dryer; free DVD rentals to watch on a 40-inch flat-screen TV next to a gaslit fireplace. More importantly, foldout couches in the living rooms and bedrooms available with two twin beds make sleeping arrangements easy.

With its "treasure chest" full of free toys in the lobby and nautical-themed guest rooms, the Argonaut is a great family option across the street from the Fisherman's Wharf waterfront, near the docks where the ferries leave for Alcatraz and one block from the tempting chocolate concoctions in Ghirardelli Square.

The family appeal of this stylish 313-room Hyatt is simple: It's just two blocks from the kid-friendly fun of Fisherman's Wharf, it has a heated pool (and Jacuzzi), and families can sleep comfortably in rooms with two double beds.